Lamb shoulder with snails (Xai amb cargols)
Ingredients for 4/5 servings: 1 lam shoulder of about 900 g, boned; 1 raw
pork sausage, without its casing, or 150 g of ground pork meat; 50 ml of
brandy;1/2 l of mineral water; 250 g of defrosted snails (half a bag, roughly);
1small bay leaf;1 sprig of thyme. And all these following veggies cut into small
cubes: 1 carrot; 1 onion; 2 small chili peppers; 1 leek stem; 1 celery stem; 2
garlic cloves; 80 g of air-cured pork sausage, also cut as the veggies. Extra
virgin olive oil; salt; black pepper.
Preparation: Fill the boned sites of the shoulder with the sausage meat. Roll
the meat piece, tie it up, sprinkle some salt and oil on it and place in a roasting
pan; place the pan in a preheated oven at 190 ºC and let it bake for 20 min.
Remove the pan from the oven, wet the meat with the brandy and add the
mineral water. Place again the pan in the oven, lower the temperature to
150ºC, bake the meat for 45 min, and turn the roll every 15 min.
Meanwhile, put the snails in some water, add the herbs and cook for some 25
min; discard this cooking water, continue cooking them in new clean water for
some 15 min, or until they're cooked (reserve a cupful of this last cooking
water); rinse the snails in abundant water to cool them down
Next, sauté all the veggies in a frying pan with some olive oil and a pinch of
salt until all the ingredients become soft (sofrito). Add the air-cured sausage
cubes and the snails (thoroughly drained), give a good stir, taking care not to
break the snail shells, add the cupful of snail broth and let it all simmer for only
3 min, and set aside.
Cut the string tying up the roll, cut the meat into thick slices, add the sofrito
containing the sausage cubes and the snails, and mix it all well with a spatula
to deglaze the roasting pan bottom, check the salt and black pepper taste, and
place it all again in the oven for only 5 min at 150ºC.